Page 67 of Submitting to Daddy
“It’s a threat,” Eavan says flatly. “But vague.”
Nik crosses his arms. “And vague threats are rarely empty ones. If they wanted to rattle you, they did a decent job.”
I meet his eyes and snip, “They didn’t rattle me.”
He lifts a brow and grandly gestures at the smallbuffet of takeout and the five of us. “They rattled you enough to call a meeting.”
He’s not wrong.
Madison leans forward. “So… who have we pissed off lately?”
“Define ‘lately,’” Enzo mutters.
“And who haven’t we pissed off?” Nik adds.
“Could be a former client,” Nik muses. “Or someone from before we took over. Hell, even someone from the club?—”
“No,” Nik cuts me off. “If it were someone local, they wouldn’t be this quiet.Wewouldn’t be.”
Madison glances at me with nervous eyes, and I know immediately what she’s thinking.
Whoever sent that message knows where to aim. They didn’t sayyour crew.They saidyou.And there are only two things in this world that could still be used as leverage against me. And one of them is sitting six inches to my left.
“What’s the play?” Enzo leans on the counter, arms folded. “Do we bang on some doors and see who rattles?”
I shake my head. “Not yet. We keep this quiet until we know what we’re dealing with.”
Nik scoffs. “So… do nothing.”
“No,” I correct. “I’ll send this to Hawk and see what he can come up. And we’ll go from there.”
Nik drops into the barstool at the end of the island and sighs, grabbing a spring roll. “As they said… we’ll find out soon enough.”
With a makeshift plan in place, Enzo and Eavan disappeared to their apartment and against everyone else’s better judgment, Nik went to the bar down the street to find the love of his life.Or of tonight.
Madison and I have found ourselves back on the couch. Only now, she’s curled against me in silence, her knees pulled up between us, her face pressed to my collarbone.
“You okay?” I ask, brushing my fingers through her hair.
She nods slowly. “Yeah. Just thinking.”
“About?”
Her voice is muffled. “About how fast things can change.”
I press a kiss to her forehead. “Whatever this is... You’re safe. I promise you that.”
She tilts her head up. “Cillian…”
“No,” I insist firmly. “You’re mine, Madison. And whatever comes, whoever’s behind this… If it’s you they want, they’ll have to go through me.”
She exhales slowly, resting her head back against me. “How can you sound so sure?”
“Because I am.”
The water in the tub has gone lukewarm. Not cold, not hot, just that weird in-between temperature where I don’t know whether I should relax a little longer or get out. My legs stretch along the tub, coated in soft bubbles, my arms resting on either side. The air is scented faintly with the lavender oil I dumped in a little too aggressively to help calm me.It hasn’t helped.
Cillian is finally home, and I can hear him pacing in our bedroom. His voice cuts low and rough through the air, taut with frustration. It doesn’t take me long to realize he’s on the phone again with Hawk, trying to get answers that still aren’t coming.
